Update from Vince

[Vince DiCola]

Hi everyone,

I hope you all are well.  It\'s been a while since I checked in here so I thought I\'d offer the following update for those who may be interested...

My partner Kenny Meriedeth and I currently have some music up for consideration for the upcoming 6th installement of the ROCKY franchise...  "Rocky Balboa".  This will (apparently) be the final chapter of the series.  Bill Conti has been signed to score the picture for some time now (Conti scored all the Rocky movies except the one I did...  Rocky IV), but we\'re hoping there are some openings for "additional score music" as well as songs (with vocals).  The package we recently submitted consists of about 45 minutes of material featuring both instrumental score music and some vocal songs I\'ve written over the years with various collaborators.  The movie is currently scheduled for release on December 22nd of this year so there\'s not a lot of time to work with.
We\'ll see what happens.

The other major project in which we hope to have an opportunity to participate in some manner is the new live-action version of TRANSFORMERS.  This movie is currently scheduled for release on 7-4-07 and is being directed by Michael Bay ("The Island", "The Rock", "Armegeddon" and others) and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.  As some of you may know, I scored the animated version back in 1986, so I\'m hoping that will carry some weight when we submit some material for consideration for this new version.  We recently discovered that a composer has been in place for this movie for over a year now.  One of Hans Zimmer\'s many protoges - a composer named Steve Jablonsky - worked on Michael Bay\'s film "The Island" a number of years ago, and apparently Bay committed at that time to hiring Jablonsky for "my next big action project" - which of course just happens to be TRANSFORMERS.  After initially learning that this movie was going to be made and on such a large scale, we had an inkling it was going to be an incredibly uphill battle to be considered.  We can only hope that the quality of the material we will be submitting, along with support from a number of fans of my original work, will make a positive and lasting impression on the powers-that-be.  Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, Travis and I have been preparing multiple compilations - some older but previously unreleased material \'from the vaults\', and some new material as well.  Please stay tuned for updates on all of this.  Thanks again to all who remain interested in my work.  And as usual, special thanks to Travis for all his great support, creatively and personally.

Cordially,
Vince

[Mantisaur]

Dear Vince,

it´s good to hear from you. thank you very much for your update! I really wish you and your colleagues all the best and good luck for these projects - sounds pretty awesome. I am sure that you have composed some great tunes once again and cannot wait to hear them soon. anyway, I keep my fingers crossed!

take care and keep up the good work!

K.

[oldfolkie]

Vince,
It\'s nice to see an update from you, and I look forward to any new compilations you & Travis may cook up together!  

[Omnicron]

That\'s great news Vince! I really hope you can be involved in some capacity in BOTH projects!

[Mantisaur]

Dear Vince,

I have a question here: is your "Rocky Balboa" package in the vein of the Rocky IV soundtrack? I think the "Training Montage" theme is one of the finest musical pieces out there!  I still keep my fingers crossed that you could release the full Rocky IV score one day incl. the Training Montage intro and the full length version of "Hearts on Fire".

take care and keep up your fantastic work!

K

[Vince DiCola]

Hello Karl,

Our "Rocky Balboa" package was laid out like a soundtrack - some instrumental score pieces intertwined with some vocal songs.  It\'s really difficult to say whether anything on this new collection could be compared to "Training Montage".  Keep in mind that my ROCKY IV score was created 20 years ago, and score music was quite different then compared to now.  One of the biggest changes that\'s taken place in film music over the years - at least in the action genre - is that there\'s much less emphasis on melody in favor of mood and atmosphere.  We do have some exciting action music in our new collection but I\'m not sure it can fairly be compared to "Training Montage".

Thanks so much for your continued interest and support.  As I\'ve said many times, if and when circumstances allow me to release any of the additional material from my ROCKY IV score, we will be sure to announce it here.

Cordially,
Vince

[illusion456]

Hi Vince, just wondering what the status is now with the Rocky Balboa project?  Also, if your material isn\'t going to be used, will there be any way for your fans to hear some of the package that you submitted?  

[Vince DiCola]

Hello,

Thanks for asking about the ROCKY BALBOA movie.  The film comes out December 22nd but Sylvester Stallone passed on my offer to be involved.   I think Stallone and the producers really wanted Bill Conti to score the picture as part of a plan to resurrect as many elements as possible from the original movie, and certainly Conti\'s contribution to that movie was major.  As far as songs go, when we made our submission in July we were told they had all the vocal songs they needed at that time.

To address your question about the possibility of making some of the music we submitted available for fans and such, that\'s a tough one.  This was a somewhat lenghty compilation consisting of material from various sources - some new, some from older releases I was involved with and some from my original ROCKY IV score.  I\'ll have to give that some thought.  If we decide to make any of that music available I\'ll certainly post an announcement here.

In the meantime, there\'s a new RAMBO movie planned and we\'ve just assembled a promo package for that project as well.   We\'re hoping to get that material in for consideration before the first of the year.  More on that possibility as it develops.

I appreciate your interest and support.

Vince

[smk7579]

Hello,

Thanks for asking about the ROCKY BALBOA movie.  The film comes out December 22nd but Sylvester Stallone passed on my offer to be involved.   I think Stallone and the producers really wanted Bill Conti to score the picture as part of a plan to resurrect as many elements as possible from the original movie, and certainly Conti\'s contribution to that movie was major.  As far as songs go, when we made our submission in July we were told they had all the vocal songs they needed at that time.

To address your question about the possibility of making some of the music we submitted available for fans and such, that\'s a tough one.  This was a somewhat lenghty compilation consisting of material from various sources - some new, some from older releases I was involved with and some from my original ROCKY IV score.  I\'ll have to give that some thought.  If we decide to make any of that music available I\'ll certainly post an announcement here.

In the meantime, there\'s a new RAMBO movie planned and we\'ve just assembled a promo package for that project as well.   We\'re hoping to get that material in for consideration before the first of the year.  More on that possibility as it develops.

I appreciate your interest and support.

Vince

Thanks for the information!  I would have loved to see you and Survivor involved in Rocky Balboa.  Your music from Rocky IV was among the best in the series.  To this day, I still workout to your Training Montage, and Hearts on Fire.  I would love to hear what you submitted to Sly for Rocky VI and would definitely be willing to pay for it.  Survivor had written some great music that would have fit well with RB, and while it wasn\'t used, they still recently released an album titled "Reach".  I\'m sure there are many fans of Rocky IV that would be interested in this new material you\'ve written.  It would be great to have some new workout music.  Good luck with Rambo!

[EvileOL]

Hey Vince, cool to see you post to your fans!

Love all of your work!

Please check out the "For Fans of Vince DiCola" Thread of mine!

[Mixmaster]

Hello Vince.

It\'s great to hear from you again and with such great and exciting news. I\'ll keep my fingers crossed for sure on the Transformer part. I\'ve just been viewing the New trailer in the highest Definition possible and looking at it frame by frame. To see what they did with the Autobot\'s and Decepticons, I could feel that your music will fit perfectly in this movie.

Especially when you play your Transformers 2006 movie suite, that you recently posted here, with this video clip.  I\'ve just done this and it somehow, magically fit\'s right together when you Start playing your song and after 5 seconds you have to start the video on Http://www.transformersmovie.com/main.html . I do hope that this thing will work out.

Further more I would like to wish you and everyone at TDRSmusic a very happy New year and all the best in the year 2007.

Greetings and cheers, Niels Berndsen

[smk7579]

Hi everyone,

I hope you all are well.  It\'s been a while since I checked in here so I thought I\'d offer the following update for those who may be interested...

My partner Kenny Meriedeth and I currently have some music up for consideration for the upcoming 6th installement of the ROCKY franchise...  "Rocky Balboa".  This will (apparently) be the final chapter of the series.  Bill Conti has been signed to score the picture for some time now (Conti scored all the Rocky movies except the one I did...  Rocky IV), but we\'re hoping there are some openings for "additional score music" as well as songs (with vocals).  The package we recently submitted consists of about 45 minutes of material featuring both instrumental score music and some vocal songs I\'ve written over the years with various collaborators.  The movie is currently scheduled for release on December 22nd of this year so there\'s not a lot of time to work with.
We\'ll see what happens.

Was this music ever made available to the public?  I recently downloaded the Creed soundtrack and it was great, although nothing has surpassed your work in Rocky IV.  It is always great to have new music to workout too.